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I leave my house for work and get called over by two village women awaiting their chance to do business with the chief. The first smiles...

Monday, August 29, 2016

Books for Life Book Club

Life is better with books.

Books fresh out of the box the day they arrived at my hut

About a year ago, an NGO called Trees for Life donated two
boxes of children’s books to my host organization (MCCC) through their Books for Life program. Although a number of
neighborhood kids read them at my house immediately after I opened the first
box, it took a few months for the women to decide the best way to put this
donation to use.

It was finally decided that we would start an English
Reading Club for school children. Our goal was to get some high school students
to take leadership of the group; to plan and read with the younger children. It
was a brilliant plan, as it would increase the community engagement and English
skills of both age groups. After a few attempts to do leadership training with
high school students chosen by my organization to lead the club, we realized
that high school students are exceedingly busy between school, traveling to and
from school, homework, and their chores. They simply were not interested or
motivated to use their small amount of free time to lead the club.

My counterpart and a dozen children reading at one of ourfirst book club meetings.

As a result, my counterpart, Ausi ‘Mareisi, and I stepped in
to get things started. We are still hoping others will take on the leadership
of the club over time, but at least for the moment children are getting the
opportunity to read books in English. They practice reading the books aloud to
one another, which is helping to bridge the gap between their abilities to read
and write English compared to hearing and speaking it.

There is nothing quite as exciting as watching a child who
rarely gets to look at a stack of books reverently pick up one and start
sounding out the words within it.

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About Me

I'm a smiling and enthusiastic educator, sailor, and Peace Corps Volunteer. I specialize in a random form of comedy and goofiness, surprising people with my bizarre comments and thoughts. I talk too much and have been told I can say whatever I want as long as I smile afterwards. I absolutely love being outside, playing in the dirt, rain, and water. I spent the first ten years of my "adult" life as a professional nomadic educator while sailing on tallships or playing in the woods. Now, I am living and learning in the mountains as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Lesotho!
Learn more about me at http://bethspencer.blogspot.com/p/about-author.html